


Once upon a time

by cease



Category: Cain Saga and Godchild
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-22
Updated: 2011-12-22
Packaged: 2017-10-27 19:21:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/299190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cease/pseuds/cease
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alexis was wrong. Cain has loved and been loved by others. Most importantly, he was never alone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Once upon a time

**Author's Note:**

  * For [veleda_k](https://archiveofourown.org/users/veleda_k/gifts).



> Notes: Cain is my favourite character too. There is just so much to love about him and I ship Riff/Cain so much. When I finished this fic I realised that there is actually very little focus on Cain himself. I don’t know how it happened. Although I suspect it has something to do with the way I love people obsessing over him.
> 
> I love how Koari Yuki uses fairytales and nursey rhymes in her stories. I did realise that you have written a Little Mermaid inspired story centering around Michaela too. I hope mine is different enough so that you can still enjoy it. Before this note gets too long, I have to apologise if the spelling of the characters are different to what you are used to. There seems to be different versions.

**Prologue**

 

 _My mother, she killed me,_  
My father, he ate me,  
My sister Marlene,  
Gathered all my bones,  
Tied them in a silken scarf,  
Laid them beneath the juniper tree,  
Tweet, tweet, what a beautiful bird am I.

 

His first friend was a boy Cain had met in the town just days before the murder.

The boy was killed in Cain’s place.

The boy had been similar in age and height, he even had the same dark hair. When they dug his body out from under the pine tree, Riff found it difficult to look at the face. The resemblance made it hard for him not to imagine what Cain would look like after death, but at the same time, Riff was sure that even as a corpse, Cain would be stunning.

‘He was my first friend, so I had to use my own power to take revenge,’ Cain told him.

Cain’s power hungry cousin, Angus, had just been killed by the hands of his own jealous lover and maid. A cheeky suggestion of betrayal here, a deliberate drop of evidence there, and everything was going according to Cain’s plan. Angus was too greedy for the title of Count and the Hargraves’ fortune, while his lover was a simple maid who had risked everything for him; Cain took their weaknesses and devised a plan to make them turn against each other. It was almost frightening, the strategic power and ruthlessness of this 13 year old boy, his master.

‘But where did Serena run off to?’ Riff asked.

Cain smirked slightly, ‘I already had her trapped.’

The next day, the corpse of the maid Serena was found hanging from the pine tree. The same tree she and her lover had buried Cain’s friend under.

Jealousy was truly a scary thing, Riff thought to himself.

 

***

 

**1\. Sleeping Beauty**

 

_Those whom fortune favors  
Find good luck even in their sleep. _

 

It was like Meridiana had been in a deep sleep. An eternal sleep, in which she had just enough consciousness to know that she was never supposed to wake up fully from it. She was a beautiful doll, but an emotionless, lifeless doll nonetheless.

One touch changed everything.

With a simple touch, Cain had awoken something within the beautiful doll. She began to feel human again. Like the princess from a tale long ago, she began to feel alive.

With a simple kiss, she gave him her heart, although unknowingly at first. And Cain gave her his too.

But with her awakening, the true horror begins.

She discovers that she is not just a doll, she is a broken doll - no - more accurate yet, she is a monster.

She is not dead, but neither is she completely alive; is she even still human? She is a patchwork quilt of organs obtained from brutal murders. She is Frankenstein.

But Cain looks at her like she is the most precious thing in the world. He tells her she is beautiful and she believes him; because his green eyes tinted with gold are serious and honest, and because to her, he is the most precious thing in the world.

She tries to do the right thing at first. She tries to leave him, but he is stubborn and she is weak and she never wants to leave his arms. But as selfish as she is, she can’t allow herself to be used as leverage against him. And as she holds the knife to her own throat, she feels defiant and in control. She is making her own decisions now, she is no one’s puppet anymore.

 

***

 

**2\. Repunzal**

 

_Repunzal, Repunzal  
Let down your hair for me _

 

He feels like he has been trapped since he was a child. His mother had tried to save him once, she made him grow his hair until it was as long and soft as that of any little girls’ and she put him in dresses in order to hide him from his father, but in the end she could not escape from Alexis. Jezebel would be the same. His father had built an invisible cage around him and only he held the key.

Cain is trapped in a similar cage of his own, Jezebel can tell. But unlike him, Cain chose to fight. Cain, who looked so much like his beloved father except for a pair of gold tinted eyes. The golden eyes which were proof of shared blood, proof that sin could be so beautiful. And no matter how much he perfected his medical knowledge or how much he challenged humanity with science, it was something he could not artificially replicate. So he decides to take them by force. They will be his prized possessions. The rarest of the suspended eyeballs in the rows of glass jars in his collection.

Only the more he came into contact with his brother, the more complicated things became. The similarities between them highlighted the pathways they had chosen to take. He hates Cain, but he also loves him.

'I love you so much, I want you to die,' he says to his brother. He says it with sarcasm is his voice, but at the same time wonders whether Cain can feel the connection between them like he can. The scars on their backs are a testimony of their demented parental love and of shared pain. But Cain is different. Cain will be saved because he wants to be.

'You must free yourself.' Cassian says. 'Escape from your father!'

Cassian can save him, Jezebel knows this, if Jezebel lets him. With his youthful face and determined eyes, Jezebel does not doubt that Cassian can save him. He catches Cassian watching him, but ignores him in favour of stroking the soft feathers of the sparrow that has landed on his fingers. He envies its freedom and the wings that give it that freedom. He closes his eyes against the sunlight streaming thought the window and pretends he doesn't notice Cassian slipping from the room. Later, when h e leans back on his chair and closes his eyes for a much needed break from his research, he pretends he hadn’t waken at the presence behind, he also pretends not to have felt hesitant fingers on the ends of his long hair.

 

_The King’s son was beside himself with pain, and in his despair he leapt down from the tower... Thus he roamed about in misery for some years._

 

Cassian leaves after he nearly loses everything to save Jezebel. Jezebel does not know where he went, but the next time he sees Cassian, his body is older and his face is scarred, but he speaks with the same disapproving tone that Jezebel realises he has missed. There are hands touching his hair again, but Jezebel knows that parts of his hair must be stained red now. Cassian calls him a fool again, and Jezebel agrees; because he knows he should escape, but he cannot betray the part of himself that needs to stay by Alexis’ side.

No, Jezebel realises, the only one who can escape is Cain. They may not be full blooded siblings, but his blood will save Cain, Jezebel thinks. His blood will reunite Cain with the one person who will lead him from this labyrinth of horror to peace. Just like Cassian is doing now. Jezebel’s body should be cold with the blood that he is losing, but he feels nothing but the warmth of the embrace of Cassian’s arms. They are like wings, Jezebel muses, because for the first time he feels light and free and finally at peace.

 

***

 

**3\. The little mermaid**

 

_When the sun's rays touched the sea she woke and felt a burning pain...just as the witch had warned, every step felt as though she were walking on sharp knives. But she suffered it gladly._

 

Before she met Cain, everything was simple. She was already in love with him and she would do anything for him.

 

_"Yes, you are devoted to me," said the prince, "and you look like a young girl I once knew, and will probably never see again.” And the little mermaid sighed deeply, for cry she couldn't. "He has said that they will never meet again. But I will be with him and see him every day. I will take care of him, love him, and devote my life to him."_

 

Michaela is happy when she sees Cain's shocked expression the moment he sees the resemblance between her and his first love, Suzette. She is happier still when she is able to stand in front of him in an adult body. Alexis reassures her that her fiery hair is more beautiful than Suzette's dark hair.

Michaela brushes a comb through her hair carefully and ties it up with her favourite ribbons for her reunion with Cain. She isn't jealous, not really, because Suzette is lying in a grave and Michaela is alive and she will care for him and protect him and carry his child and devote her life to Cain and surely then, he will love her. Her body is covered in bandages and after the last operation, it still causes her pain to walk, but she does not regret her sacrifices if it will make Cain love her even just a little.

But she fails and Cain hates her.

She thinks about what else she can do. What _can_ she do when every sacrifice she has ever made was to gain his love? She tries to convince him otherwise, but Cain is stubborn and doesn’t understand that she was born for him and that if he rejects her, then she will just cease to exist.

‘Your love... was the only thing that I ever wanted,’ she tells him.

That is why when she is given a choice between betraying Cain and living, and betraying Alexis and certain death, she is still unable to betray Cain.

‘You can once again be loved by the cardmaster and live happily! Do you want to disappear like bubbles in the water the way the mermaid princess did?’ The arsonist taunts her.

But Michaela is not afraid. She only hopes that when her body disappears, she will be able to become one with the air, that she will be able to watch over Cain and be constantly near him like she had always wanted.

 

***

 

**4\. The Riddle**

 

_There was once a King's son who was seized with a desire to travel about the world, and took no one with him but a faithful servant. One day he came to a great forest, and when darkness overtook him he could find no shelter, and knew not where to pass the night. Then he saw a girl who was going towards a small house, and when he came nearer, he saw that the maiden was young and beautiful._

 

 _Women are fickle creatures_ , Riff thinks.

It’s just unfortunate that Cain is a curious creature. No matter how much he protects his heart, his curiosity leads him to follow these women. These young, beautiful women with questionable pasts and bleak futures. Cain wants to save them, often from themselves; only most of the time, they are beyond help.

Riff’s master is no longer a child; he is wiser and has seen more of the world that most 17 year olds. But when his expression cracks enough for Riff to see the desperation and the need, Riff can only swallow his criticism.

Riff is always giving in. He gives in when Cain wants to dig up Suzette’s grave, and he gives in when he finds Cain, shovel in hand, determined to do he same to Meridiana’s grave. So he takes the shovel from his master’s hands and offers to do the labour of digging up the grave, even though he knows how dangerous it will be, how damaging the incident will be to the family name if they are caught. But when Cain speaks about his feelings so honestly and with a hint of vulnerability that he hasn’t shown in years is now, Riff only wants to satisfy him; to give this boy everything he wants.

Riff wants to complain though. Cain has never lived with girls, he has never shown them his darkest secrets, his deepest scars. He will also never know whether they would be able to care for him unconditionally, whole heartedly.

Cain has always been blind to the people who really need him, and those who have cared for him for years. People like Emmeline, who changed her life just to get his attention; and people like Riff who had his life changed the moment he laid eyes on that lonely, scarred child.

So he slaps Cain across the face when his master refuses to leave the crumbling house and the corpse of the woman he had fallen in love with at first sight. His hand burned as soon as it made contact with Cain’s cheek. For the first time in a long time, Riff’s resolve cracks; and for the first time, Riff feels anger towards his master. His grip on Cain’s shoulder tightens. Cain’s eyes are wide with shock, most likely surprised that his gentle butler had laid a hand on him in this way.

‘Have you forgotten that there are people who love you and who are waiting for you?’ Riff cries in desperation, ‘If you throw me away, if you leave me behind, I’ll….’

He holds onto the boy tightly, so tightly that he feels Cain’s erratic heartbeat against his chest. Over and over again, the voice in his ear says:

‘Don’t let go… if you let go… I’ll shatter into a thousand pieces… I will… I’ll just die.’

 _But isn’t that what I’ve been doing all along?_ Riff thinks. _I won’t let go. I’ll keep holding onto you so that you will never break; because don’t you see, my Lord? It isn’t a princess who needs saving. I’ve decided to save you from the first moment I laid eyes on you; because you are the one who saved me from myself._

It would be later when Riff will realise, with a sad laugh, the similarities between Meridiana, Michaela and himself. Their bodies will betray them. They were living on borrowed time, and when the day when that time's up is to come, they can only hope that they will have enough control over their bodies to make one last attempt to protect the person most important to them.

 

***

 

**Interlude**

 

 _Baa Baa black sheep_  
Have you any wool?  
Yes sir, Yes sir, Three bags full.  
One for the master and one for the dame  
And one for the crying boy who lives down the lane.

 

Thinking back, it was a rather childish thing to do. But then again, he had been a child then.

It wasn’t like he had believed the rumours about Riff and that French maid; he had just been annoyed. Riff was _his_ , therefore he shouldn’t be out frolicking with foreign maids.

‘You’re certainly popular with the ladies here, aren’t you?’ Cain asked. Riff’s fingers paused from where they were tying Cain’s shoe lace. Even as he accused Riff of wanting to escape, of wanting to elope and of other ridiculous things, his servant kept his silence. Then he had run off like the brat he had been and ignored Riff’s call.

Perhaps he had really feared that Riff would leave him, and that those days where he cried by himself all alone would come back. Riff had been the one to stop his tears, so he should take responsibility – or at least that was how his twelve year old self reasoned.

So he had shown Riff the painting of Prince Edward, knowing full well that the maid, Shavonne, had followed them. The old servant Stein and Shavonne’s plan to undermine Riff’s position had been obvious to Cain, and conveniently for him, Shavonne’s death had helped to prove Stein’s guilt. Cain couldn’t help but feel a little smug, he had gotten rid of both annoyances in one go. But all satisfaction evaporated when he saw Riff’s shocked expression. Cain glanced at him with a dismissive air, even though his heart was pounding with uncertainty and much needed reassurance.

‘Too bad, isn’t it? You’ve just lost your last chance to escape my grasp.’

Riff only smiled at him. ‘But in all the world, I belong nowhere other than right here.’

It has been five years since that incident and there have been no more rumours involving Riff and any maids since then, although Cain has occasionally overhead the maids discussing how handsome his steward is. Cain finds it all very amusing but he does make sure that Riff is kept much too busy to be getting too familiar with anyone. Riff is the only one allowed to make his tea. Riff’s hands are the only ones allowed to tie his shoe laces, to undress him, to dry him after a bath, to gently trace the hated scars on his back and to hold him. He knows the shape of Riff’s hands and every callous on his fingers, because they, too, belong to him.

So when Riff finds him all alone in a building about to collapse, Cain brushes off Riff’s attempt to push him away in order for Cain to save himself. Riff has finally returned to him and with a stubborn smile, Cain embraces him and doesn’t let go. Because even if all that remains of Riff is a pile of bones, they will belong to him too.

 

‘All I can do is be by your side.’

‘That’s good… like air, forever by my side.’

 

**Author's Note:**

> Quotes from:  
> The Juniper Tree - Brothers Grimm  
> Sole, Luna, e Talia – Basile  
> The little mermaid – Hans Christian Andersen (minor edits)  
> The Riddle – Brothers Grimm  
> Dialogue from Sakura-Crisis scanlations.
> 
> A Big thanks to my beta.


End file.
